In microcontroller applications (e.g., industrial, automotive, aeronautical, etc.), analog signals may be converted to digital form and processed concurrently. For example, in such applications, multiple sensors may provide information about various aspects of complex systems, with the sensors providing analog signals at their output. With evolution in various technologies, an increasing number of analog channels are desired to be converted to a digital form concurrently for processing. In some cases, multiple analog channels may each carry multiple analog signals from multiple sources, for example.
The increasing number of analog input signals for analog-to-digital conversion can lead to a high degree of complexity regarding the sequence of conversions or to an increased area, especially if various analog input signals have to be sampled at specific points in time, which may even differ from signal to signal.
In many scenarios, the number of independent ADC modules is increased to allow independent sampling and conversion of groups of analog signals. This also increases the costs and complexity.
Typically, an increase in the quantity of analog signals to be processed results in the deployment of an increased number of analog-to-digital converters (ADCs). However, this increase in the number of ADCs increases the amount of area consumed to provide the ADCs for the application, as well as the amount of energy consumed to power them.